My two 24g 150 MH Aquapods Diary

[greenreefer]

Well I've reading daily here for a little over a month and I think I'm ready to get started.
My wife and kids told me to buy a saltwater tank for father's day and my mother has an aquapod so I looked online and purchased a 24g 150 MH setup for just under 400 including stand. Several years ago I read quite a bit on GARF, so I built a plenum, some agrocrete and started the tank cycling with grunge. In the mean time I found this site and started readind. Now I'm ready to completely change my setup.

 

[greenreefer]

When my first setup arrived the sunpod had abut a 4 inch scratch right across the front that the manufacturer had tried to touch up. I called the online site that I purchased it from and they ended up sending out a replacment for no charge and allowed me to keep the scrathed one. I was just going to keep the scratched one as a replacement incase the new one failed. I was surfing around the internet on July 1st and noticed how expensive the sunpods were as a standalone, so on the 2nd I called the online site and asked how much to purchase just the tank. It took a long time to get an answer, but when he came back to the line he said 37 dollars. I purchased it right away before he got a chance to change his mind. The second tank should show up on Monday.

 

[greenreefer]

I just happened to be in Indianapolis on business and one of the quality online sites happens to be located there and has locally hours on Saturdays. I picked up 40 lbs of cured Marshall Island nano LR, 4 hydor flos, 2 mj1200s, 2 mj600s, and 2 20 lbs bags of Caribsea LS. I'm driving home now, but I'm looking forward to bagging my old subtrate in mesh bags and splitting the water between the two setups and see what happens. I assume I'll only have a minor cycle since I'm saving the water and going to place the current substrate in there for about a week.
I'll start posting pics once I get both setup with the LR.

 

[greenreefer]

i'm just doing some planning, so save all of the comments about being patient and cycling. I'm going to feature couple percs and a bta in one tank. Any recommendations of what to feature in the other?

 

[kjohansen]

Sounds like you are off to a good start Greenreefer! Get some 1/2 tubing and you can get rid of that nasty L connector and have a nice smooth bend.

 

[greenreefer]

I did that today, thanks. I know you have a similar setup, do you ming sharing you lighting details (not specs, but how long and what times you run each of the lights)?

 

[kjohansen]

I run the blue LED's all night long. I turn the white on with the blue at about 9am, at 12 noon the MH comes on and the LED's go off. The MH stays on till 11pm and then both LED's are back on. The white goes off at 1am.
In the beginning I did not run the lights as much trying to avoid a huge diatom bloom. It worked, but I still got a small bloom.
In a couple weeks I am going to swap out the stock MH bulb for a Phoenix 150, has a much better par value and better color.
On the BTA, I hope you will wait till your tank is pretty established. If you wait a few months you will have a better chance with the BTA.

 

[clay12340]

40lbs of rock seems kind of light for two 24 gallon tanks. I'd try and double it. The marshall island in their tanks is really good stuff though. It isn't the most diverse rock I've seen, but the shape and density on it are pretty much unbeatable. They sell it at a pretty reasonable price too, especially since you get to cherry pick it yourself. I've always had good experiences with that store.
Since you are adding new rock to the tank you are going to have a cycle regardless of your sand etc. The rock is probably very well cured, but you always end up with at least some die off.
I'm not sure how I feel about your substrate in a bag idea. I think you would be better off putting a large handful under the new sand in both tanks. Scooping it out and keeping it in a bag is going to let all the gunk that has built up in it out into your new tank which will add to the nutrients and early algae. If the bag is very fine it is also going to stop most of the beneficial worms and such from getting to your new sand. It might work out and I've never tried it to refute that, but it seems somewhat counterproductive to me.
I've got a 12 gallon with the 70w MH, I run my halide from 9 am to 11 pm. When it kicks off the blue LEDs come on and they go off at 9am when it starts again. I don't run the white LEDs. They just felt too bright to me to be night lights. It would probably allow me to get a less dramatic shift, but I didn't like the look.

 

[greenreefer]

Clay12340,
From other posts here I thought that 40lbs would be on the light side as well, but I called the stored I purchased it from and they recommended starting with 20lbs per tank of marshall because it is less dense than other types of rock. I transported the rock from their store to my house in saltwater with a powerhead and a heater. it was only out of their tank about 16 hours before it went into mine, so I'm hoping no die off, but I'll keep my eye on it. once I started putting the LR in the 1 tank I have I was very glad I only had 40lbs. It filled the tank fron to back, side to side, bottom to about 3 inches below the top of the tank. I was shocked and happy. The other tank should arrive in the next couple of days and then I'll aquascape both and see where I'm at.
My previous substrate was CC so I was able to use a bag with big enough holes for the good stuff to get out (pool filter bag). I figure that I'll leave it in this tank for 4 days and then move it to the other.
I thought the MH was only suppose to be on for about 10 hours. I thought leaving it on longer was asking for hot water and algea. Does it seem okay in yours? Anyone else have feedback on this?

 

[greenreefer]

Thanks for the light schedule. I'll wait on the BTA. I've read that many times here, but what are we waiting for, just a certain amount of time or something else like copepods build up or certain params?

 

[clay12340]

In my opinion if you are limiting your light schedule to control your tank temperature you have a larger problem that needs to be resolved. I like 12 to 14 hours of daylight and if my tank won't stay cool enough under high lighting at that interval, then I'll work the heat issue out in another way.
I don't have any heat problems currently. However a lot of factors weigh in on the tank temperature. I keep the ambient at a steady 74*. This allows the tank to shed excess heat into the surrounding air. If I was keeping the room at 78* in order to use less AC, then this would be less effective.
I've never gotten bad advise from them, so if they say 20 is the way to go it is probably a good start if nothing else. I've got around 25lbs in my 12 gallon with no space problems, but about 8-10lbs of that isn't Marshall, so that might make the difference.

 

[greenreefer]

I placed my first order today, which should arrive tomorrow and the second aquapod is being delivered today (longer than expected), so today is a good day. I added a serpent starfish, 9 crabs and 9 snails (a mix), and a porites coral with christmas tree worms. All things I've had for about a month and a half, which a picked up locally from ***** for $30. They obviously don't know what they are doing there.
My order today was for:
LPS
med green and pink frogspawn $39
med green and pink hammer$39
SPS frags
purple monitpora digitata $20
Pink Seriatapora hystrix $20
purple tip Acropora secale $20
blue encrusting montipora $20
shrimp
blood shrimp $20
skunk cleaner shrimp $15
I'm planning on picking up two percs next week after this stuff gets settled.

 

[greenreefer]

Wow what a difference replacing the stock pump makes. My tank was running about 82, which I thought was partly due to running the lights for 12 hours, but replacing the pump has dropped it to 78.

 

[howardj]

Any pics?
who makes the maxi-jet 1200?

 

[clay12340]

If you added new rock you'll want to wait at least a little bit to make sure any die off gets taken care of and you don't have any issues.
Since the stuff is coming tomorrow, I guess just keep a very close eye on your water chemistry.
Also make sure the serpent star is going to be suitable. A new tank often doesn't have much in the way of food. This is especially true in smaller tanks.
Sounds like you've got quite a start on stocking though. Those are all really good looking corals.

 

[greenreefer]

I don't think I'll have much die off because of the way I transported it.
Anything I might want to suppliment the starfish with? I've had him for a month and a half (I started with GARF grunge, agrocrete, and saltwater in a rubbermaid), but I noticed that it has become much more active since the LR was added.
Pics coming this weekend.

 

[kjohansen]

Originally Posted by GreenReefer
Wow what a difference replacing the stock pump makes. My tank was running about 82, which I thought was partly due to running the lights for 12 hours, but replacing the pump has dropped it to 78.
Yep, my tank runs right about 78 also. The stock pump puts out way to much heat.

 

[clay12340]

It is probably a combination of hunting for the little goodies in the rock and looking for new places to call home. It'll eat about anything meaty. Put a piece that is size appropriate near its arm and it'll wrap it and up run off with it. I love watching my mini stars fight over the scraps at feeding time.

 

[greenreefer]

Well after I ordered they called back and were out of two of the corals so they swapped out with two others and threw in a large neon green bta. I know it is early to be getting a anemone, but they threw it in without telling me for not having what I ordered. Below id what I ended up getting this morning,
LPS
med green and pink frogspawn
med green and pink hammer
SPS frags
purple monitpora digitata
orange monitpora digitata
purple tip Acropora secale
purple encrusting montipora
shrimp
blood shrimp
skunk cleaner shrimp
anemone
large neon green bubble tip
I setup the second aquapod and aquascaped both. All of the corals seem to be extended already, but the bta hasn't yet found it's spot, so I haven't permenantly placed the corals yet. I'm hoping to take pictures and post them tomorrow night.

 

[greenreefer]

Well it has been an interesting couple of days. My bta decided it didn' like where it was and just let go. It ended up floating towards the powerhead and got partially sucked in, luckily I was right there and pulled the plug. It eventually worked its way out last night and then crept behind the rock work. I was worried about it all day, but evenually it came out, found a home, and settled in. It seems to be doing well, but I'll keep an eye on it. The blood fire shrimp shed its exoskeleton tonight, but seems to be doing fine. I've never seen one do that so fast after being added to a tank. I was supposed to take pictures tonight, but the camera's batteries were dead so I'll try again tomorrow.